Fifteen Reasons Why Not to Date Hamada Yoshirou
by Rokutagrl
Summary: Izumi tries convincing Tajima as to why he shouldn't date Hamada. HamaIzu/HMIZ
1. 15 Reasons Why Not to Date Hamada

**Author:** Rokutagrl

**Title:** 15 Reasons Why Not To Date Hamada Yoshirou

**Pairings:** Mentions of SuyaSama, AbeMiha, maybe others… Main pairing of HamaIzu (HMIZ).

**Warnings:** Yaoi? Me trying to push the HMIZ fandom a bit farther.

**Disclaimer:** Do not own!

**Summary:** Izumi tries convincing Tajima as to why he shouldn't date Hamada. HamaIzu/HMIZ

***Edit***

* * *

"And that's, uhm…"

"I'll have to think about it." Izumi curtly interrupted. "I'll, uh, see you around, Hamada!" The batter twirled on his heels, getting ready to jet out of there.

"…Wait! Er, Izumi?" His taller friend tried, but repelled his statement once Izumi actually turned to look back. He hid his face beneath his overgrown bangs—Izumi had promised a week ago to cut them—and dismissed his friend with a quiet, "Never mind. See ya…"

Izumi ran from his dejected once-sempai, or rather walked as briskly as his legs could take him. He didn't want to show the other how desperate he was to escape. He was just glad he couldn't see Hamada's face in those last seconds. He'd probably agree under the influence of sympathy or some other pathethic crap he wasn't sure he was capable of or not... Or something to that effect.

Izumi shut the classroom door behind himself and slid to the ground in a relieved huff. His heart beat wildly against his ribcage, the momentum churning wildly throughout his lower stomach. The brunet wondered if heroines ever felt this way in horror manga when they weren't sure whether they had eluded the monster stalking the halls outside.

"I-I-Izumi-kun?" A bewildered Mihashi questioned his teammate's disposition. Still engrossed with his fantasy of consternation, Izumi involuntarily jumped at the meek sound of his classmate worrying over him. Though he hadn't meant to (hence the 'involunary' motion), the movement freightened the tough-as-a-nest-of-mice-Mihashi into apologizing. Quicker than Izumi could run to first, or process the chain of events, Mihashi had all ready exited through the second set of doors. And at that pace would probably be long gone before Izumi decided whether or not to pursue it.

He'd just apologize tomorrow. _If Mihashi wasn't too scarred to come out from underneath his bed. _Had it been any other day, Izumi might have laughed at the perfectly accurate thought, but it wasn't and he didn't. Instead his stomach sank further and he groaned, wishing that Mihashi had taken him as well.

"What was that all about?" A half-asleep Tajima wondered, having woken up when his brunet friend entered. Normally he would have all ready been making himself comfortable in the Mihashi residence, but something in Izumi's expression kept him seated.

Izumi quietly made his way over and sat at his own desk, knowing that he'd be safe in the hands of his dimwitted friend. He needed to take his mind off of the unnecessary things tossing and tumbling in his stomach. Tajima was good for forgetting.

The brown-eyed teen waited impateintly in the silence for, "Nothing!" and then blinked. He turned in his own seat to sit opposite Izumi.

"Well, what did Hamada want?"

Tajima watched as his close friend turned red, then muttered, "Don't worry about it!"

"Whaaaat?" Tajima asked, incredulously. "You gotta tell me _now!"_

Izumi told him to forget it again, but obstinately the star player began shaking the table with multiple cries of, "IZUMI! TELL ME! What did Hamada waaaaannntttttt!" The teen was practically whining now.

"That's not gonna work with me." Izumi said, flatly.

Tajima stuck out his tongue, "Fine. Then don't expect me to take notes for you anymore!"

"You don't even take your own notes."

"Then don't think I'll let you copy Hanai's notes!"

"He's not even in our class. Besides, I take my own." Izumi countered.

"Only when you're awake."

Izumi consented this to be true. "But I'm still smarter than the three of you."

Tajima had no way to deny this, for their test scores proved the other right. So he went back to shaking the desk between them and complaining about friends telling each other everything.

Izumi continued ignoring him in favor of the view outside. Tajima ceased his actions again, this time realizing something felt… wrong, cold to his usually charismatic teammate.

Yes, Tajima knew that there was more than a blank expression to his friend. Heck, Izumi was one of the best friends he had at Nishiura and the two were often in trouble for tormenting Mihashi (out of love), or causing some other mischief. But Tajima could tell that even when he was quiet or not seeming to pay attention, the slightly taller boy was always in a good mood. Right now, he was more melancholic.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Tajima worried. He could read Mihashi like a book—or better yet, a baseball playbook—but Izumi was just a bit beyond his level of comprehension. More like a novel.

"Yeah…" Izumi sighed.

"If you tell me what's wrong," Tajima instigated, "I could help you solve it."

Izumi continued to stare into space for the longest time. Tajima busied himself with making airplanes out of pages in his notebook. He was a good friend, honestly, but his attention span suffered.

Finally Izumi confided, "Hamada confessed to me."

It took half a second for the information to sink in, and another half for the boy to add it all together. "Congratulations!" He offered with the goofiest grin he had in stock.

Izumi stared, unguarded, at his rambunctious companion. "…"

"…"

"…"

"...You agreed, right?" Tajima tilted his head.

"…I told him I would think about it…"

Tajima jumped to his feet and spoke as though justice had been punched in the gut: "What do you have to think about!"

Izumi snorted at the other's antics. "A lot of things. Like that we're both guys."

Tajima laughed. "And you think that stops Mihashi and Abe? Or like, Sakaguchi and Suyama? Or—"

"I get it," Izumi interrupted. "Everyone's gay. But that doesn't mean I have to go out with Hamada."

Tajima looked over his friend with new eyes. The teen looked sweet somehow. His hair flushed over his face in ways that made one want to play with the thick strands. Rather than his usual scowl, his eyes were unfocused and eyebrows un-knit. His normally pale cheeks were stained pink, accenting his light freckles. Tajima hadn't even noticed how long his friend's lashes were until this moment. From his angle looking under Izumi's chin he could see how well defined and coal black they were, as if the brunet wore lash-defining mascara.

Izumi was pretty, he realized belatedly. No wonder Hamada asked him out. There weren't many girls with his unique charms, either. Not that Tajima had come across.

"Why not give it a try?" Tajima prompted.

Izumi's scowl returned for a moment. "Why should I?"

Tajima frowned, the action feeling very foreign. "What reasons do you have not to?"

Izumi decided then and there to halt the conversation. Even on the walk home, and their time in the convenience store, or even after dinner playing video games Izumi ignored the idea altogether. Tajima decided not to press the subject too far, but he did wonder what had his friend so preoccupied.

"Fifteen." Izumi told Tajima the next day when everyone else was getting ready to leave. The star player wondered what his friend meant, but he was told to wait until the last student had left. So Tajima busied himself drawing manga characters over his not-notes, only acknowledging a red-faced and stuttering Hamada when he said his adieu's. He even watched the awkward eye-exchange between the blond and his brunet friend.

Izumi only looked away.

"So…" Tajima began after he sent Mihashi home alone once more. "Fifteen what?"

"Fifteen reasons why I shouldn't date Hamada," Izumi answered back, pulling a piece of leaflet paper from his bag and smoothing it out onto the desk.

Tajima noted how it had even been neatly titled, "15 Reasons Why Not to Date Hamada Yoshirou."

Well, that was convenient.

"Only fifteen?" Tajima joked, but asked his friend to continue with his examples. This was going to prove to be an interesting day, the baseman concluded when Izumi began with the first reason.

* * *

This should be about 17 chapters long, with a reason each chapter.


	2. Reason 1

Title: 15 Reasons Why Not to Date Hamada Yoshirou

Author: Rokutagrl

Disclaimer: I do not own Oofuri.

Chapter: 2/17

Reason One: Gender

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. No promises, but I'm going to try to work on this. And also make it better than this chapter. Life has been hectic, but I really wanted to update 3

"Well… First, we're both guys."

If Izumi were expecting a reaction from Tajima it certainly wasn't because, "That's a crap reason!"

"It is not!" The centerfielder defended.

"Yeah it is!" Tajima shot back, grabbing the list and his handy sharpie. With a fell swoop he crossed the number one reason off the list and grinned over his work. "There we go!" He declared, showing it off proudly to his glowering friend.

"That doesn't change anything."

"There's a giant line! It changes everything!"

"Stop being stupid," Izumi flicked the smaller teen on the head, who just laughed. "There's nothing crap about it!"

:D

"All right," Izumi tells him quietly, face down and shame welling up in his chest. "I'll go out with you."

He expects the quiet that follows. He even waits for a belated swell of laughter from the blond and his accomplices who set up this practical joke. Izumi's going to be jeered and hated all the way into college or his grave- whichever comes first.

But there is no laughing, to his surprise. Students don't pour out from behind chalkboards and under desks to berate Izumi on his life choices. Because, well, _maybe _he does like Hamada. _Maybe _he's liked Hamada since he watched him throw fastballs in middle school and _maybe _before that he always thought Hamada was cool. _Hypothetically, _there'd never been much of a choice.

For his part, Hamada looks pretty confused. Like he doesn't even remember the confession that happened _yesterday for god's sake._ But obviously Izumi didn't _possibly_ fall for his incredible brains.

"You..." Hamada finally tries, "want to. Uhm, I mean, go out? With me?" He even has the audacity to point to himself as though Izumi might have been talking to the floor. Which, sort of, he was.

"Yeah..." And this is awkward. Izumi doesn't do awkward. He doesn't feel awkward. Never almost- Almost never! Awkward is a word he uses for Mihashi, or the things Tajima says in public places. Izumi's so used to them both that awkward's become more of a description than an emotion. _And fuck Hamada looks somewhat adorable when he's happy. _

"So..." The blond tries, but his words are broken off by his own stupid grin. "Does this mean that you... Like like me?"

Izumi takes to reading the leftover kanji on the wall and nods as if he wasn't really paying attention. The lines are fluid and the sentences only slant slightly. It's the work of someone with delicate fingers. A girl must have written it, he thinks. Someone small and petite whose hands would fit Izumi's the way his do Hamada's right now.

He ignores the tingle down his spine when all ten fingers curl between the spaces of his own. It's involuntary when his own mimic the action. Slowly, as though giving Izumi permission to pull back, Hamada lifts both fists to his lips, kissing them softly as he manhandles the runner, gently, to move a slight 90 degrees.

Suddenly, Izumi's back is erasing the craftsmanship he had only just been admiring. _But who really gives a shit _because Hamada's mouth is creating some artwork of its own and Izumi's mouth is the pliant canvas he's been starving for.

"Hamada-" he gets out once or twice. Izumi's not really sure if it's a _Stop, We're in Public _ kind of gasp or another awkward moment of _Crap, I Maybe Don't Want You to Stop Even Though We're in Public._ But it doesn't matter. Hamada doesn't read much-atmosphere or otherwise-and Izumi knows that already. He also doesn't particularly care when the second tongue in his mouth licks against the roof-

And the fucking door opens.

There aren't a terrible many ways to explain _how _one's ended up against a wall with a really close friend's tongue playing hockey with your tonsils.

But it sounds a little like, "blllarf llaila," and nobody buys it.

Hamada breaks away, pushing off Izumi with enough force to shove the smaller boys back into the chalk shelf. He hisses in pain, which is just enough to forget for a moment that he's been caught making out with his very male friend. In front of his entire class.

They're all lined up outside. Half by the doors, the rest forcing open the hallway windows for a better look. The bell rings, but no one makes another step into the classroom. Not even their history teacher, who just gapes, scandalized.

With an audience watching, Izumi feels like an unwitting understudy who got thrown on stage just before curtain call. _Is he in the right costume? Is he wearing anything? What are his lines? Oh shit oh shit oh shit._

Hamada's gone when he finally dares to look. There's only some knocked over chairs in a somewhat empty classroom.

It's like a Shakespearian tragedy. Except he's not even Hermia, but that ass Nick Bottom. Just without the hot fairy queen pampering his behind.

But he can take it: The jeering. _Sometimes _he isn't annoyed when a foot here and there sticks too far out into the aisle between desks, or when people'forget'to hand back his test papers. When his mom asks, it's easy to pretend the extra bruises are from baseball practice.

What he can't handle is when Hamada stops talking to him.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin comes a week too late: "Two guys together... It's disgusting." Hamada doesn't even have the decency to look him in the eyes.

Izumi knows-knew it before he even said anything, but it doesn't stop his heart from breaking just a tad.

DX

"Yeah..." Tajima dragged out the word, seemingly caught off guard for once. "That does seem pretty happenable."

"Probable," Izumi corrected him.

"You've got a pretty romantic heart there, Izumi! If Hamada kisses like that, I bet you wouldn't even hear the door open!" Tajima added and keeps grinning even when he gets swatted.

"I still say it's craaaapppppppp!" Tajima rattled his desk a moment later to emphasis his displeasure.

"Think what you want."

"I know!" Tajima defended. "No one's treated Mihashi any differently since he came out!"

"That's because people think Abe will put a curse on them."

"Huuuh? That's silly!" Tajima burst out laughing. "Witch Abe! Stirring his brew and cursing people! I can't see him doing that, strictly!" The two fell into companionable laughter for a while, imagining their poor friend wearing a witches hat, staring into a bubbling cauldron.

"So what about Sakaeguchi? He came out last year!"

"His boyfriend is manlier than the Rugby team. Even you wouldn't be that dumb." Izumi rolled his eyes over the image of the short stop.

"Hamada's manly, too!"

"…"

"Seeeee?"

Izumi slumped in his chair, bouncing a pencil with a great deal of attention. It took Tajima a moment to recognize the emotion over his friend's face. It looked bored, but to him it read _uneasy._ No matter what his _every so slightly _taller friend tried to say, he was honestly a little frightened. Tajima wasn't all too certain how to deal with such an expression from Izumi. And not knowing how to deal with someone was something that had Tajima squirming in his own seat.

"Just because this school is deranged, doesn't mean it doesn't happen elsewhere."

Tajima considered for a moment, then made an extra squiggly mark next to the previously crossed out reason. "We'll split the difference!" He explained when Izumi looked at the paper quizzically.

"Fine. Read the next one."

Tajima smiled at a job well done.

Homophobia is real. It's a problem. And one day people will hopefully realize that there's nothing wrong with love, no matter who it's between. But I had Tajima disregard the reason only because I'm certain the whole baseball club is gay, with a sometimes exception of Mizutani, and I want to pretend the school is mature and wonderful and not at all like real life.

And also I just really wanted to write more while I had some time, but I forced it and it's crap...

And Happy Birthday Sunchaser55~!


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